


Angels We Have Seen On High

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Fat Shaming, First Kiss, Government Experimentation, Heith Secret Santa, M/M, hoverboard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 13:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13077963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Hunk just wants to fly, and so does Keith - but it takes a little courage. Written for communikate for the Heith Secret Santa!





	Angels We Have Seen On High

**Author's Note:**

  * For [communikate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/communikate/gifts).



  The brochure hung behind the counter of his shop, not hidden but not displayed front and center either – but the woman’s eyes found it anyway, flickering up to Hunk’s with skepticism. “Wings?”

               Hunk laughed, shifting over behind the counter. “Oh, it’s – it’s one of those government programs. They need more people to live in the upper cities and it’s easier if, well.” He shrugged. “Who  _doesn’t_ want to fly, right?”

               She smiled a little at that, counting out the money she owed him for the mechanical repair on her car. “I suppose it’s a nice idea. What are they calling them now, angels?”

               “Angels, yeah. It’s not an official term, but, you know, it caught on.”

               “I remember seeing those in my picture books as a kid.” She looked him up and down with a wry glance. “I don’t remember there being any  _fat_ ones.”

               Then she was headed out the door, and Hunk imagined chucking the wrench at the back of her disappearing head. Instead, he turned around and yanked down the brochure, shoving it into his cash register instead. He wasn’t going to give anybody else the opportunity for a snarky comment.

               “…Hey.”

               Hunk’s head snapped up, but he relaxed quickly when he saw who it was. “Keith. Hey.”

               The teenager leant casually in the entrance of the mechanic’s workshop, red jacket a blaze of colour against the grey buildings outside and only slightly dusted with the smog that lies heavy over the bottom half of the city. “You got a moment?”

               “Yeah –“ Then Hunk sighs. “You wrecked it again.”

               “I wrecked it again.”

               “You know, for a genius pilot, you crash an awful lot.” Hunk shakes his head, then beckons Keith in. “Come on, bring it here, ace.”

               Keith laughed, dropping the hoverboard on the counter and taking a  _little_ too much obvious joy in Hunk’s groan of distress. “It was doing okay until I smashed into the –“

               “No,” sighed Hunk, holding up his hand. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Don’t implicate me in your fast-talking criminality. I’m a  _law-abiding citizen._ ”

               “Uh-huh.” Keith rested his chin on his hands, raising an eyebrow at Hunk.

               “…Don’t sass me.”

               “I didn’t  _say anything._ ”

               “You don’t have to,” grumbled Hunk good-naturedly, opening up the hoverboard’s circuitry with another groan of frustration. “You exude sass. You are walking sass.”

               “Says the man who tried to convince me sporks were the future.”

               “They  _are!_  I bet that’s all they use in the upper city.”

               Keith smiled softly at that, fingers toying with a loose screw lying on the counter. “…I got high enough to see some of them. The angels, I mean.”

               Hunk paused. “…You overheard, then.”

               “Only a bit. I can kill her if you want.”

               “See, I never know whether or not to take you seriously,” Hunk joked, then shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m too scared of heights to go for it anyway. And who knows if they’d accept me?”

               “They probably need mechanics in the upper city, you know.”

               Hunk shrugged. “There are other mechanics –“

               “ _Hunk._ ”

               Hunk’s hands paused, and he stared down at them, willing them not to shake. Then Keith’s fingers covered his.  “You’re allowed to want to fly. Most people do. And you can get over the heights thing, if you want to. I could help.”

               He sighed. “I – I’ll think about it.”

—

               The sun was setting, and from the roof of his workshop, Hunk could just see the outlines of the city in the sky, floating over the western region of the lower district. He could still remember when there  _hadn’t_ been an upper and lower city. Things changed quickly.

               He had the brochure in his hand, and he sighed, opening it and flicking through it again. He knew it off by heart now. Fill out the application form, and you agreed to be part of the first public round of genetic manipulation and surgery. You too could have wings. Lance had sent it to him about two months after his friend had been picked for one of the earlier experiments. After he’d lost him to the upper city.

               Lance still visited. But it wasn’t the same.

               Hunk found his eyes inexorably drawn back up to the distant skyline. Even the technology of it thrilled him. Antigravity thrusters, lightweight metal, all secured by heavy chains that stopped the city from drifting off entirely. There were no elevators, no stairs; it was a city for the  _new_ kind of human.

               He couldn’t stop the bitter laugh. Fat angels. Right.

               “I figured I’d find you up here.”

               Hunk managed a smile as Keith drifted into view. “How does it fly?”

               “Not bad. You’ve kept this piece of junk going well past its sell-by date.” Keith flew in a circle around Hunk’s head, then came to a landing next to him, flopping down on the gravel that coated the roof. “You should put a chair or pillows up here or something.”

               “Yeah. Maybe.” Keith was quiet at that, and Hunk glanced over in time to see Keith’s eyes fixed on him. “What?”

               “Oh, just –“ Keith shrugged.

               Hunk nudged himself over until their shoulders were touching. “…Still nothing from Shiro?”

               “I’m sure he’s fine,” he mumbled.

               Hunk wrapped an arm around Keith, giving him a squeeze, and he was rewarded with Keith burying his head into Hunk’s shoulder. “Hey, I…” But he couldn’t find the words.

               “What?” Keith mumbled into Hunk’s shirt.

               “…I’ve got two forms. For – for the program.” He took a deep breath. “I just – I just don’t want to do it alone. And I thought maybe – maybe it was the same for you.” Now that he’d started talking, he couldn’t stop. “I mean you’ve been wanting to go up there and check on Shiro. And you know they don’t turn people away often. But you keep hanging around  _here_ instead and I just – if you want company – maybe –“

               Keith lifted his head, purple eyes wide. For a moment, Hunk thought he’d said something wrong – that he’d assumed something wrong about Keith, that he was crossing a line, that he was in territory reserved for somebody else –

               Then Keith’s lips were on his, bitten and chapped and yielding, and all Hunk could think was –  _oh. Yes. That worked –_ before he was kissing back, the callus of his thumb catching on the loose threads of Keith’s gloves, stroking the soft inner part of his wrist –

               “Took you long enough,” Keith grumbled quietly.

               “Took  _me_ long enough? There was nothing stopping you from kissing me  _whenever,_ you know,” Hunk teased.

               “Yes, there was!”

               “And what’s that?”

               “…Stubbornness?” Keith offered, and Hunk snorted, pulling Keith into his lap.

               “So,” Hunk said quietly, “tomorrow?”

               “Tomorrow.”

               It was a promise. They were going to learn to fly. And Hunk couldn’t help but smile, because he wasn’t so scared of heights if he knew he wouldn’t be alone.


End file.
